<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Stay by Miner5431</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27856441">Stay</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miner5431/pseuds/Miner5431'>Miner5431</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>ADHD, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Can be romantic if you want, Clay | Dream Has ADHD, Clay | Dream Has Panic Attacks, Comfort, Confusion, Crying, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, George is trying his best, Hurt/Comfort, I Love You, King GeorgeNotFound, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Language, Minor Character Death, Minor Stimming, Minor Violence, No Romance, No Smut, Panic Attacks, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Stimming, Waking Up, but intended to be platonic technically, can be either way honestly but yeah, does this count as angst, friends saying i love you, i don't write a lot of fluff idk how to tag this lmao, i think it does, ive never written a panic attack before so, like zombies and stuff, platonic dreamnotfound, random extra character can be whoever you want, some spoilers in summary kind of??, very minor tho</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:55:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,186</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27856441</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miner5431/pseuds/Miner5431</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>George has always been pretty selective about giving out his phone number, and he only has one contact whose calls will always reach him, even on silent. When they happen to do exactly that in the middle of the night, he's got some things to deal with. And sometimes all he can do is hope for the best and try his hardest.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clay | Dream &amp; GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>420</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stay</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>!! TW / CW !!<br/>-Panic attacks<br/>-Stimming mentions (not sure if it needs a warning or anything but just in case?)<br/>-Minor violence in the first paragraph, not very related to the rest of the story (it's a dream) and can be skipped without really missing anything</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>George grinned, wide and only a little smug. He took a step forwards, the short heel of his boot landing carelessly and heavily on the chest of the man underneath him. His expression faltered, almost imperceptibly so, before it dropped to a look of vague disappointment, "Y'know," he mused, "I had almost expected better of you. Well, I guess it's a little too late for that now, huh?" His eyes narrowed and his heel dug in just a little more. He did what he'd consider a successful job in hiding the spark of joy he got at the gasp of pain and wince that followed his actions. He lifted his hand slightly, the solid diamond of his sword glinting in the slowly growing sunlight as it pressed to the man's throat. It was then that he cursed under his breath as the smell of smoke and burning flesh hit his nose, an awful stench that was joined by the clattering of bones and the ringing of the zombies' pain. He didn't get much time for the noise to register in his mind before he was ducking his head away to try and pull his cape over his nose with his free hand; However, the movement, just slightly too fast, caused the weight on his head to shift and his crown was sent to the ground, ringing loudly as it hit the grass. Ringing?</p>
<p>George woke up. He immediately screwed his eyes shut, attempting to block out the already incredibly small amount of light that filtered in through the open window. Against his wishes, he didn't manage to immediately go back into his dream, and he groaned in protest of the loud ringing that continued to pound it's way into his skull. Begrudgingly, he opened his eyes, blinking slowly as the half of his mind that was still half asleep begged him to drift off again. He lazily rubbed at his face as he lifted his head off of the pillow, trying to wake himself up enough to at least somewhat function and shut off whatever alarm he must have been stupid enough to forget about. Why would he even set an alarm in the first place, let alone one this early? He managed to get his eyes focused enough to catch the faintly yellowish light his phone was emitting on the other side of the bed, causing a slight wave of confusion to hit him. His lockscreen wasn't usually that colour, was it? Well, a light was a light, a colour didn't change much, maybe his eyes were just tricking him worse than usual? After a moment of trying to think, he realised the alarm had just stopped. Oh. Welp, maybe he could just rest his eyes for a minute or two before he turned it off for goo-</p>
<p>It went off again. That's not what alarms did, was it? The realisation hit him like a particularly awakening truck, and he threw out his arm in that general direction in order to confirm his suspicions. So close, his thumb just brushed against his phone, and he moved to grab it. He was instantly met with a specific pattern buzzing against his hand, registering in one second that it did confirm his thoughts - it was, indeed, a phone call - and whatever thought he had in the following second ended up getting cut off as his haphazardous groping must have accidentally swiped across the screen, also cutting off the buzzing and the noise. He fumbled a bit to push himself up onto his elbows and pull the cold phone to his ear, the slightly more logical version of George in the back of his mind wincing as he roughly yanked the cord from the wall in the process, distantly hoping he didn't break it. The more sleep deprived part of his brain that was in charge right now, however, couldn't possibly give less shits, pulling the cord from his phone and tossing it off to the side and out of his way. When he spoke it was low and barely above a broken whisper, "Huh- Hello?"</p>
<p>It took a moment for his brain to register what was happening on the other end of the phone, which didn't seem to receive his message or his answer yet. "Fuck, pick up, please, holy hell.." the hoarse mumbles over the phone were broken up by laboured breathing and a couple rough sounds, something akin to gasps or perhaps sobbing. Although some of it was incomprehensible, George managed to make out a bit of what the other voice said, continuing between more harsh, broken noises, "Damn it, even George doesn't care, does he? Has he ever? Who even gives a shit? It's over, it's done.. doesn't matter.. doesn't care.." There was quite a bit of repetition, and it finally clicked.</p>
<p>"Dream?" George pushed himself to speak a little louder, worry evident in his face and his voice. What the hell was going on? He should have known it was him earlier, he always had his phone on silent at night and Clay was the only one whose calls could still go through like normal. He'd only call at this time if it was something really important. George felt like a bit of an idiot.</p>
<p>On the other side there was a gasp, and the mumbling stopped immediately. Quietly, tensely, George heard him again, "George?" he sounded on the verge of tears, or perhaps far past tears and with nothing left in him to manage anything more. In a way, it was almost pathetic. To George, it was insanely worrying.</p>
<p>"Yeah, yeah," George spoke without much thought, although the distant drag of exhaustion he still felt in the back of his mind and the edges of his body didn't exactly allow him much space to think either way, "It's me, Dream. I'm here. What's going on, Clay?" He tried to hold back the worry in his voice, but he was completely shit at doing so, letting it leak through and soak deep into his words. The hard breaths still pierced his ears, rough and impossibly fast.</p>
<p>"I.." Clay struggled to start, stammering and trying to speak through another gasping sob "George, please. It's.. It's," another one interrupted him, yanking him to a rough stop. There was a pause, a moment of stuttering, and he continued again, voice a little louder as he forced out his next words, "I can't." The words hung in the air. George opened and closed his mouth, and another couple of rough words came from Clay before he could come up with something to say "Chest. Chest, it hurts."</p>
<p>That was all George needed. A moment of shuffling later, he had Clay on speaker and was sitting up in bed, still keeping his phone close to make sure he didn't miss anything. He racked his brain for a moment before he settled on blurting out the first thing he could think of, "What's your name?" Okay, maybe the question was stupid, but it was something, right?</p>
<p>There was a pause, a slight lull in the quickness of his breath, and then an answer came, shaky and soft, "Clay."</p>
<p>"Good, good," George nodded, trying his hardest to sound reassuring, "now, where are you?"</p>
<p>Another break, just breathing filling their ears, and George could only imagine Clay's eyes darting around in what was likely a pitch black room. He stayed quiet, trying to calm his own nerves and give Clay time to process and form his words. Maybe a simpler question would be better next.. His thoughts were interrupted by the stuttered answer to his last question "In bed. My room. I'm in my room."</p>
<p>"Okay," George spoke up a bit quickly, hoping Clay would know he didn't need to continue and he got the message "Is it dark?"</p>
<p>"Mhm," Clay hummed, his response much quicker this time, and George could hear the faint, repetitive sound of movement in the background now that his breathing was just slightly softer, "yeah.."</p>
<p>George paused, eyebrows furrowing as he thought. Right, that could help. He asked "Can you turn a light on? Is there one near you?"</p>
<p>There was a bit of shuffling, the phone likely moving around a bit and causing the audio to get a little off as Clay stopped focusing on the device so that he could, as George was only able to assume, fumble around for the lamp on his desk. There was a pause, and a click, followed by a little noise halfway between a groan and a gasp, "Yeah, yeah," Clay remembered, vaguely, to actually answer him and bring the phone back to his ear, "lamp's on now."</p>
<p>"Good. Pretty bright, though, huh?" It wasn't much, but it might make him think a little? George still didn't have the most experience with this, not completely sure if he was actually helping or not.</p>
<p>Either way, it got an answer, "Ugh, yeah." There was an almost joking tone, he'd definitely consider that a success.</p>
<p>"So, we know your eyes work, then," was joking the right thing to do? He hoped for the best, and hearing Clay let out a little huff of breath that didn't sound too angry lead him to believe it was working at least a little, "alright, Mr. Eyes, you should be able to tell me.." he paused, thinking quickly "What are two things you can see?"</p>
<p>"Um," Clay was quiet, the sound of movement faltering but not completely stopping and his breathing still irregular. After a little while longer, he mumbled "Uh, walls. Grey walls," George could tell he added the last part as more of an afterthought, shoving it onto the end of his words "and, erm.. two.. my desk?"</p>
<p>George nodded, despite the fact Clay couldn't see it, "Do you know how you're feeling now?"</p>
<p>It was quiet, aside from the persistent shuffling and breathing still, and George patiently let him think. After a minute or two, he finally spoke "Still hurts. My chest, uh, my head. I can, uh, feel my heart. That's.. wow, um, fast. Really." Clay still stuttered over his words, not seeming completely there yet. Before George could speak again, he interrupted "It kinda feels like I'm dying."</p>
<p>Oh. Fuck. Well, uh. George took a deep breath "I promise you're not dying, Clay." He hoped his words were reassuring, or at least did something other than make things worse. He didn't hear a response, not really expecting one either way, and he continued with another question, "Do you have anything to drink?"</p>
<p>A short pause, and he could hear Clay's head moving against his phone, likely a nod judging by the answer he followed it with, "Mhm. Uh, water."</p>
<p>"Perfect, can you drink? It'll probably help with that headache." It was only a second later the other end of the phone was filled with heavy, quick gulping. It shocked George slightly, but he guessed that was better than nothing, "Yeah, yeah, that's good. How is it?"</p>
<p>There was a pause, a small clink as the glass was set down, and Clay sounded slightly confused as he answered "Uh, watery?"</p>
<p>George chuckled at that, soft and low and slightly tainted with remaining sleepiness. Quickly, he realised how that might sound, and spoke again "Right, right, that's good. How about cold, huh?"</p>
<p>"Cold, uh.." Another pause, George could hear fingers drumming against glass. Movement, sound, that was probably good, right? He was probably, or hopefully, at least, stimming, right? George still didn't really understand much of it, but he thought it was a good sign. Clay continued, "The water, uh," a vaguely indifferent noise followed, something like an "Eh?"</p>
<p>"Right, okay," George paused, he couldn't think of much more to say "How are you doing now, any better?"</p>
<p>Clay was quiet. George pushed back the worries that tried to creep forwards from the back of his mind. Finally, he spoke "Yeah. M'better now, a little." George took a moment, really taking in just how exhausted he sounded, breathing not coming quite as fast but occasionally rough or stuttering, little hiccups interrupting him. As he squinted into the brightness, he realised it must have been at least past midnight for Clay, probably nearing one now.</p>
<p>"I'm glad," He was, honestly, "Do you need me to do anything else?"</p>
<p>Clay paused, a shaky breath leaving his lips, request soft and nearly begging "Stay. Please."</p>
<p>"Of course," George's tone was similar, hushed but comforting, "of course I'll stay, Clay."</p>
<p>"Thank you."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>--</p>
<p> </p>
<p>George wasn't sure how much time had passed, spending it quietly watching as the sun came up and ever so slowly filled his room with golden light. The only thing he was truly focused on, though, was his phone, held close as he listened to the quiet breathing on the other end. Finally calm. Peacefully so.</p>
<p>His voice was barely a whisper, and he wasn't really sure if he even wanted an answer "Hey," he paused, feeling like every part of him was listening for the response. When he got none, he continued in the same nearly inaudible tone, "I love you, Clay."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I've never written a panic attack before, so I really hope that my research helped and that this was accurate! I also used a little info that I already knew. Inspired by when George was saying that Dream only has his phone number in case he really needs him and that his calls go through even when it's silent and all that</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>